This is apparently the last book Gene Wolfe wrote and it feels like he didn't get to finish it. But I'm still glad I read it. It was great to see how things were going with this version of Ern Smithe after the events of A Borrowed Man.

Smithe is a reclone in a world where he is treated as a thing that can be damaged or destroyed with little to no repercussions. I found it refreshing that Wolfe tells how Smithe copes with this instead of making this a story of the massive revolution that would be required to correct this injustice.